The Spark

BY Chris Downie

A revolution is taking place! Millions of people are discovering a new way of thinking about their weight, their health, and their lives. They are taking part in a visionary approach to weight loss that combines goal setting, nutrition, exercise, motivation, and community that has a proven track record of ten million pounds lost. From the experts who created SparkPeople.com, one of the most successful online weight-loss programs to date, comes The Spark, a ground-breaking book that focuses on what you can do, instead of what you can't do. The Spark is about transforming your life and your idea of what dieting means.

With dozens of photos - including stunning before-and-after shots and easy-to-follow exercise images - this book distills the best of SparkPeople's medically accepted nutrition and fitness plan and infuses it with a program of personal empowerment.

In this book, you'll discover:
-"Secrets of Success" - the best habits of SparkPeople's most successful members
-A 28-day program that brings together the most effective practices from SparkPeople into an innovative 4-stage plan, available only in this book
-Dozens of success stories that show the power of this transformational program

A revolution is taking place — a community movement of millions of people discovering a new way of living and thinking about their weight, their health, and their lives. They are embarking on a journey with a proven system that builds confidence, supports personal growth, and inspires weight loss. And they are reaping great benefits, such as higher levels of happiness, more energy, improved health, the desire and ability to reach new goals, and increased connections with other people.

The old method of punitive dieting simply does not work. Complicated fads, rigid protocols, and a focus on deprivation lead to failure, as millions of yo-yo dieters can attest. But at SparkPeople the revolution is building. People are living better lives, making healthy choices, feeling great, losing weight, and keeping it off.

And their numbers are growing at an astounding rate. Every month, over four million people visit the SparkPeople Websites. And they are so passionate about their experiences that they are spreading the word, recommending the program to friends and family. In fact, 175,000 new members join SparkPeople each month—that’s almost 6,000 per day, or 4 people every single minute of every single day.

The core of the program is an effective combination of nutrition and fitness with goal-setting techniques. But what makes this system so potent is the infusion of our own special magic—elements of a secret formula that make it accessible and profound as well as fun and rewarding. Our program radiates a joyous team spirit and the knowledge that people are nourished by each other as much as by food. We have created a system that promotes the interconnectedness of an extended family—mutual support and a sense of belonging that is healthy for both body and spirit.

To understand why SparkPeople is so potent and effective, and why The Spark will have the same powerful impact, just take a look at the animal kingdom. Elephant trainers tether a baby elephant by a thick rope to a stake hammered into the ground in order to limit his range. Whenever the elephant tries to escape, he is quickly restrained by the bond, and he learns that he does not have the strength to break away. As the baby matures, the trainers reinforce the boundary set by this rope. By the time the elephant is an adult, he is massive, weighing several tons and capable of enormous feats of strength. But now the trainer could tether him by a slender thread and he still would not try to escape. The elephant has grown so accustomed to being restrained that he has no idea of the strength he possesses to free himself.

All of us are conditioned to live within a limited perception of our own power to transform our lives — moving through our days with invisible tethers that hold us back from becoming who we really are. But while the elephant submits to its restricted boundaries, we possess the freedom to set the scope of our own dreams. We’re free to move out of the dusty circle where we’ve stood, stuck and discouraged, and into a new terrain that offers a landscape of vast potential.

We can awaken that smoldering spark inside ourselves and become our best and truest selves. I know because I have done it myself and so have millions of others.

WHY SPARK, WHY NOW?

There is a positive force that flows through you that is unique. At SparkPeople, we help you tap into it to envision your best life and then achieve it.

Take the time to do this now, wherever you are.

Focus on the core of strength and promise that resides within you, underneath whatever chaos your life may be in or whatever shape your body.

Give yourself up to this moment. Dare to see it.

Now look down at your feet; slip out of those invisible tethers.

Then ask: Where would you take yourself right this moment if you walked toward your most heartfelt dream?

What would your life look like? What would your body look and feel like? What level of energy would you have?

What might be your favorite activity? What would your daily life include?

Imagine happiness—the sweet glow of inner contentment, the way it tastes and smells and feels.

It may feel odd, even uncomfortable at first. As adults, we have grown unaccustomed to dreaming. We believe it’s the domain of children or fools, of birthday cakes and wishing wells.

But our brains respond to wishing. Envisioning our hopes provides a path, as luminous as a beam of moonlight. Once you’ve visualized what you wish, an inner road is being cobbled for you to follow. Maybe you see yourself on a Hawaiian beach, slim and active. Or maybe you envision something more specific, like our member who dreamed of becoming a police officer, but was so heavy he had trouble getting off of his couch. A hundred pounds lighter after joining SparkPeople, he recently passed the agility exam for the Bakersfield, California, police department.

Or maybe, like our member Linda, you wish for increased mobility and health. She wrote:

I am the lowest weight I have been in nine years and I am proud of the fact I did it from a wheelchair. I have lost over 50 pounds with my limitations. I was born with a disability and needed spinal surgery. I lost the use of my legs through the surgery and had given up. I ballooned up over 300 pounds . . . I was homebound because of the wheelchair and had no access to a wheelchair van. I found SparkPeople and it changed my whole outlook on life. I saw there was hope for me to be healthier.

Although many people first come to SparkPeople for weight loss, our program is actually a way of life. A state of mind. It is a road map that will take you to a destination all your own: a place where you have confidence in who you are and what you can become.

As founder and CEO of SparkPeople, I’ve watched millions of others “spark” their lives to not only lose a tremendous amount of weight and achieve levels of fitness they never thought possible, but reach astonishing life goals as well—from healthier kids and family to improved career and financial well-being.

Our program inspires an inner power that not only connects you with others but makes you capable of performing feats beyond your dreams.

Take Dana, a 45-year-old mother of three and grandmother of two who proves the far-reaching power of our program in a post she wrote on her online SparkPage:

Last November I was driving behind a bus doing the speed limit when from out of nowhere a car whips around both me and the bus. Yes, double yellow lines, on a hill, going around a blind curve . . . I freaked out, and said to my son, “Oh my gosh, that person has a death wish!”

After that corner the road becomes an upward progression of hills and valleys, so there’s no seeing what’s ahead until you’re actually there.

Well, sure enough, when we arrived there, it was a mess, a nightmare!

I pulled over as quickly as I could and called 911. The car was in a ditch on the opposite side of the road about 50 yards from the car it had just hit head-on. Inside was a lady, probably in her early 50s; an airbag had punched her in the gut and chest pretty hard and she couldn’t breathe. I was concerned she was having a heart attack because of the way she was grasping her chest. She was very much in shock and because of the enormous amount of smoke pouring in through the vents she thought the car was going to blow up, but there was no getting her out, so I got as much of myself as I could in through the busted-out window and held her.

Finally, after several minutes, when the paramedics arrived, I had to let go of her and get out of the way, but I have to say, it broke my heart to let go, I didn’t want to. This lady and I had bonded . . . and during those terrifying moments I had lost all sense of myself . . . there was no “ME” in the picture, only us . . .

The reason I’m telling this story is because all of you are beautiful.

SparkPeople cause me to have that same feeling, the feeling that I’m a part of something so much bigger than myself . . . That it’s just as important to me that all of you become healthy and happy as it is that I do.

We live in such a busy, isolated society, there is so much loneliness and sorrow . . . so much stress and need of THINGS . . . when I was in that car with that woman, every bit of that vanished . . . all I felt was a desperate need for her to live.

I want you all to LIVE in every aspect of the word . . . I don’t need to know you (although I’d love to) or be your close friend to know that you are a part of me . . . that the healthier you are, the healthier I am . . . that the more success and goals you reach, the more likely I am to do the same.

These are the kinds of stories I hear every day.

My own journey of self-discovery led me to SparkPeople. And thanks to the Internet, the Spark message has spread to millions of people—many of whose lives have been changed. But this book can do even more, connecting the dots between diet, fitness, community, confidence, and feeling good. The Spark delivers on the promise that dieting can be transformative. Its visionary system of support, motivation, diet, and fitness has a proven track record—nearly 10 million pounds lost and thousands of personal goals reached—and still counting.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS SURVEY

We recently sent a 64-question survey to a random sample of our millions of active members and received over 5,500 responses. The survey reinforces our program’s core belief that the old, punitive dieting model is both outdated and ineffective.

This survey’s compelling findings include dozens of practical ways to get results. We segmented the respondents into groups: people who reached their weight-loss goals, people who lost 100 pounds or more, people who called themselves "dieters," people who described themselves as “pursuing a healthy lifestyle,” and people who reported being “stuck.” The secrets of the most successful—those who either had met their goals or had lost 100 pounds and were on track to reach their final goals—are found throughout the rest of the book:

• How our members have lost between 2 and 200 pounds—or more

• How so many of our members have gone from being winded walking to the mailbox to learning to jog, even run marathons

• How the majority of our members report increased levels of confidence, energy, health, fitness, happiness, and goal achievement

But perhaps the most striking result of our survey was the answer to the following question:

“If you are trying to lose weight or maintain your weight loss, which of the following best describes your efforts: I am on a diet or I am following a healthy lifestyle?”

Fully 90 percent of all SparkPeople members stated they were following a healthy lifestyle rather than dieting. Moreover, those on diets were much less likely to have reached their weight-loss goals than those living healthy lifestyles. People “on a diet” simply lost less weight.

Dieters tended to use tools that were centered on deprivation and willpower and focused on the scale. Healthy-lifestyle members, on the other hand, used strategies that were focused on positives, eating more fruits and vegetables, cooking more healthy foods, eating substantial, healthy breakfasts, and drinking much more water. They had a major philosophical difference from dieters who viewed their plates as half empty, while they viewed their plates half full.

The old diet model that you need to grit your teeth and suffer is not only antiquated, it doesn’t work. This is the crux of why our members finally achieve lasting weight loss, improved fitness, and better health as well as greater levels of personal happiness.